Power and the People: c1170-2000

The Middle Ages

Period: 1066 to 1485

• Challenging authority
• Challenging feudalism

Magna Carta

Jun 15, 1215

• King John was extremely unpopular with barons
  • Over taxation (repeated levying of scutage 11 times between 1199-1214)
  • Excommunicated in 1212 due to appointing Stephen Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury
  • Repeated military failures (eg. Battle of Bouvines, 1214, failed at retaking Normandy)
• Barons held John at swordpoint and forced him to sign Charter
• Demands included
  • Free men have right to fair trial (foundation of modern law)
  • No scutage may be levied

Provisions of Oxford

1258

• Barons' demands
• Henry had to agree
• Council of 24 could make decisions without royal consent
• divisions appeared - radical vs moderate

Battle of Lewes

1264

• Simon captures Henry III and his son, Edward, with the help of some barons

Simon de Montfort's Parliament

1265

• Commons, including knights and burgesses, called to Parliament by de Montfort, this continued even after monarchy took back control in:
• August 1265, Royalists defeat Montfort in Battle of Evesham

Statute of Labourers

1350

• Prevented wages from increasing (from pre-plague standards)
  • Limited movement of workers

The Peasant's Revolt

1379

• Black death - more demand for peasant workers
  • Poll taxes
• Wat Tyler led rebels to London
• Talked with Richard at Mile End
• demands: abolition of serfdom, amnesty, handing over corrupt officials
• Richard agreed, but then changed his mind
• Armies killed rebels
• King back in control by end of June
• John Ball - excommunicated
• July - Hanged, Drawn, Quartered
• Struck fear in ruling class
• 1450 all villeins freed

Poll Tax

1381

• levied in 1377 and 1379 too, to pay for French invasion
• disproportionate burden on the poor, 4d per man

The Early Modern Period

Period: 1485 to 1800

• Challenging royal authority
• Developing Parliament
• Development of civil liberties

Church of England

1534

• King Henry VIII proclaimed self head of church of England
• dissolved Catholic monasteries, removed feast days, etc.

Pilgrimage of Grace

1536

• Causes - anger about religious change, monasteries, Advisors, economy
• Act of Suppression 1536, poor harvests, taxes
• Cromwell blamed for taxes + abolishment of feast days
• 30000 marched on York, Robert Aske - leader
• Henry VIII bought time by giving in to some demands - pardon + no more monasteries closed
• Aske spent Christmas with King
• revolt broke out on way home - king went back on word
• 216 executed, religous reform sped up
• reinforced absolute monarchy

Lincolnshire Uprising

1536

• Lincoln Articles sent to king
• Grievances: Restoration of old ways of religion, removal of Cromwell
• over 1000 marched under the Pilgrim's Oath (Robert Aske)
• Rebels didn't have leaders
• Revolt ended quickly
• 57 death sentences carried out

Personal Rule

Period: 1629 to 1640

• Charles I dissolves Parliament and rules by himself

English Civil War Causes

1641

• Parliament vs King Charles I
• Parliament Protestant, 'radical', wanting more power
• CI introduced many unpopular ideas
  • New Prayer Book, 1639
  • Ship Money: Illegal taxation on ships, even in landlocked counties 1634-1638
  • Rumoured Catholicism: Angered Puritans (Oliver Cromwell) and Protestants
• Parliaments demands became more radical
  • Militia Bill: transferred control to army to Parl., 1640
  • Triennial Bill ensured Parl. was called at least every 3 years, 1641

English Civil War

Period: 1642 to 1651

• Cavaliers (Royalists) vs Roundheads (Parliamentarians)
• Oliver Cromwell creates New Model Army (first standing army, where soldiers were conscripted based on ability not money), 1645
• Charles I executed in 1649
• Gave rise to groups like
  • Diggers: believed property was theft, equality was growing crops on shared land
  • Levellers: radical, John Lilburne, wanted votes and freedom
  • Conservatives: Cromwell leading, would not give radical groups their wishes

Lord Protector for Life

1653

• Oliver Cromwell established title, apparently no legacy
• Established Commonwealth of England, introducing more taxes on restrictions, as he was a devout Puritan

Glorious Revolution

1689

• To prevent Cromwell's line resembling monarchy, Parliament restored Charles II (1661)
• CII was ambiguously Catholic but managed to keep power
• JII succeeds (1685), tolerated by Parliament although he was Catholic and had a son who would be raised Catholic, raising concerns for Parliament
• William of Orange (NED) invited to oust JIII and rule jointly with Mary by The Immortal Seven, 1688
• Bill of Rights signed at Parliament's request- shift from Absolute to Constitutional Monarchy, 1689

Robert Walpole

1721

• First Prime Minister
• Under rule of Hanover King George I

American Revolution Causes

1775

• Acts sparking anger in American colonies
  • Navigation Acts preventing colonies from trading with countries except Britain
  • Stamp Tax: On all documents including newspapers ('No taxation without representation!')
  • Mercantile System: Colonists only allowed to buy British owned products to boost economy
  • Declaratory Act (1766): reinforced British control/ validity
• Boston Tea Party (1773): Tea aboard East India Company clipper emptied off Boston Harbour, restitution paid eventually

Declaration of American Independence

1776

• colonies publishing Declaration of Independence, similar to Magna Carta
• provoking British Association Movement petitions
• 1781, British officially defeated, as economy and taxes weakened due to recession, army preoccupied in Napoleonic Wars

Zong Ship Trial

1783

• 133 enslaved people thrown overboard to claim insurance, slaves seen as commodities
• Granville Sharp brought public attention to this case, publicity, propaganda
• Thomas Clarkson simultaneously producing drawings of horrible slave ship conditions and showing to public

Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade

Period: 1787 to 1807

• founded by Thomas Clarkson, Granville Sharp - campaigners
• over 100 petitions presented to Parliament in three months
• 20% of Manchester's population signed, 1792
• 1797, anti-slavery petition had more signatures than the Chartists
• 300,000 people boycotted sugar produced in West Indies, causing economic struggle
• 'Natural Rights' ideology starting to form, Presbyterians, Quakers against slavery

Combination Act

1800

• Government passed act preventing employers but MAINLY WORKERS from forming 'defensive combinations', after groups such as LUDDITES started breaking machinery in protest of loss of jobs
• Now only skilled workers could afford to pay subscriptions to less radical 'friendly societies'

Lord Shaftesbury

Period: 1801 to 1885

• MP in Woodstock
• introduced Ten Hours Bill
• 1840, Children's Employment Commission set up
• resulting in 1842 Mines and Collieries Act
• president of Ragged Schools Union in 1844

Abolition of the Slave Trade Act

1807

• William Wilberforce, MP, secured act in Parliament making it illegal to buy or trade enslaved people in the British Empire

Robert Owen

1810

• socialist manager of New Lanark mill
• introduced 8 hour day, recreational and educational facilities 1816, very successful town according to MPs, visited by royal family

Corn Laws

1815

• tariffs on imported corn, for protectionism
• price of bread rising immensely, bad for factory workers, good for British land owners

St Peterloo's Massacre/ 6 Acts

1819

• Rotten boroughs- unfair distribution, corrupt electoral system
• No Secret Ballot
• Increased taxes- increased poverty
• Henry Hunt's speech in St Peter's Fields- Peterloo Massacre- 11 people killed
• Government Introduced 6 Acts- Banned meetings of more than 50 people and asking for reform became an act of treason

The Great Reform Act

1832

• after third attempt, Lord Russel passed it
• middle class men can now vote

The Anti-Corn Law League

Period: 1833 to 1846

• trying to convince Whigs government that freetrade is better
• memorabilia, John Bright speaking to crowds on 5,000
• 'one issue' group
• 1845 Irish potato famine showing severity of corn law effects
• 1846, Sir Robert Peel repealed Corn Laws

Tolpuddle Martyrs

1834

• 200,000 protesting in Copenhagen
• 800,000 names on petition against harsh punishment after 6 agricultural labourers tried to form a union after wages cut to 7 shillings a week
• arrested for breaking 1797 Act Against Unlawful Oaths
• George Loveless was first to return in 1837 after government granted a free pardon, wrote pamphlet 'Victims of Whiggery', selling raised money for funding families

Grand National Consolidated Trades Union

1834

• claimed to have 500,000 members collectively from all trades
• failed in December due to clashing ideas and trouble with finances

The Chartist Movement

Period: 1838 to 1848

• key causes for concern: rotten boroughs, corruption, limited representation, public votes, limited franchise.
• Proposed solutions: vote for all men over 21, secret ballot, equal electoral districts, annual parliament, pay for MPs, no property qualification
• Used every method possible to demonstrate

Third Chartist Petition

1848

• Previously in 1839, 1942
• Over 5,000,000 signatures
• Conditions all granted eventually, nothing immediately
• Secret ballot granted 1872

Trade Unions Congress

1868

• many small scale trade unions co-ordinating with each other
• initially unbalanced, disproportionate representation

Third Reform Act

1884

• Prime Minister William Gladstone introducing third act
• Still no universal male suffrage
• 40% men without vote
• Women not even mentioned, none could vote

Annie Besant & the match girls' strike

1888

• took 50 fellow match girls to Parliament, had links with MPs, to demand a fairer wage, better working conditions
• employers gave in and granted demands after five weeks
• first time unorganised, unskilled women had gone on strike and been granted wishes

London Gas Workers Union

1889

• over 3,000 members within weeks
• London Docks workers inspired by this, demands included overtime pay, higher wage, minimum employment 4 hours
• August, dock at standstill, picketing, sympathy strikes from coal men, postmen, railway porters
• £30,000 gift from Australian trade unions
• employers agreed to most demands in September

The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies

1897

• 17 suffrage groups around the country who had been petitioning for votes for women came together to form the NUWSS
• 1900, Millicent Fawcett made president
• Organised petitions, letter writing campaigns, published newspapers for advertising cause
• Conflict with WSPU, as worried their violent campaigning would lose support
• 1911, 26,000 members!

The Women's Social and Political Union

1903

• founded by Emmeline Pankhurst and two daughters
• wanted votes only for women with property qualifications, like men
• Labour party did not support, as they saw it as unfair to give vote to people based on property rather than age

WSPU at Liberal Party Meeting

1905

• publicity was their greatest success
• October, disrupted Liberal Party meeting, shouting over speakers
• Christabel Pankhurst, Annie Kenney, arrested by police, charged with assault
• Sent to prison, earning vast amounts of publicity
• Now called 'suffragettes' whilst more peaceful NUWSS people 'suffragists'

NUWSS Rally

1907

• male and female political speakers gave lectures on political issue of women without vote
• NUWSS funds used to pay for election campaigns, salaries for MPs who would help to get vote for women - eg, Bertrand Russel in Wimbledon
• 1910, manage to get 280,000 signatures with support of 36 MPs
• 1912, Labour Party first political party to support votes for women

Hyde Park

1913

• pilgrimage of 50,000 women to express support for women's votes
• although Asquith against votes for women, mainly against WSPU
• 1914 WWI, NUWSS got public sympathy as it gave up its campaign to support government in wartime industries

Cat and Mouse Act

1913

• WSPU getting increasingly violent, fire-bombing Prime Minister's country house 1913, throwing stones at 10 Downing Street 1908
• imprisoned suffragettes going on hunger strikes, making police look bad and lose support
• new act allowing ill prisoners to leave, recover and be rearrested
• gained sympathy and publicity for votes for women

Franchise Extended

1918

• franchise extended to women over the age of 30 who were related to the Local Government Register (employed there or married to a worker there)
• 8.4 million women given the vote

General Strike

1926

• strikes seen as treason during WWI
• 1925, miners' wages subsidised after cut by 13% and shifts increased from 7-8 hours
• many British industries struggled as government bought internationally, improving relations, reparations
• about 1.5 million strikers!
• 4th-13th May, TUC began negotiating with government and mine owners as it got increasingly violent and they lost control, return to work despite no concessions

Trade Disputes Act

1927

• sympathy strikes and picketing banned
• 500,000 left workers unions

Jarrow Crusade

1936

• 70% unemployment in town of Jarrow after Palmer's shipyard closed in previous year
• 200 men marched 300 miles from the North-East
• local MP Ellen Wilkinson presented petition
• although prime minister did not meet her demands, garnered public sympathy, eg, communists

British Nationality Act

1948

• Caribbeans and Asians from Commonwealth immigrating to Britain, to help rebuild country after war, remittance payments formed second largest contributor to Jamaican economy
• Example of ship is WINDRUSH
• Workers in NHS, London Transport services, causing 'white flight', segregation
• Teddy Boys, overcrowding in areas

Notting Hill Riots

1958

• London factory owners reluctant to employ migrant workers
• landlords exploiting tenants for money
• racism rising

Commonwealth Immigrants Act

1962

• work voucher needed to enter country
• immigration being reduced

Rivers of Blood Speech

1968

• Enoch Powell gave racist speech
• Voluntary repatriation, response to Kenyan Africanisation

Race Relations Act

1976

• racial profiling, 'sus' law
• Operation Swamp 81, 1000 black people stopped in 6 days

Brixton Riots

1981

• masses protesting against perceived police brutality and institutional racism
• 1000 policemen sent from London to Brixton
• 100 vehicles destroyed, 150 buildings damaged

Scarman Report

1981

• Government enquiry into institutional racism
• 'Sus law' repealed
• Police Complaints Authority established in 1985

Miner Strike

1985

• When Margaret Thatcher came to power in 1979, began stockpiling coal and closing unproductive mines
• After government announced closure plans, Arthur Scargill, leader of National Union of Mineworkers, strike 1884-1985
• TUC and Labour politicians trying to get an agreement
• women and sympathisers aiding strike
• Last coal mine closed in 2015